I clipped Inara's nails earlier this week (all by my lonesome! She did great!) but I'm curious how often I can clip them to start getting them down to a short length. I'd let them get a bit long ( ). So how frequently can I clip just a bit off of them? Weekly? Every couple weeks?

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"

Clip 'em once a week, that way you only have to take the tips off so no worries about quicking and it makes your dog get used to it/learn to deal AND it'll make the quicks start to recede.

I also honestly LOVE the dremmel tool. They're about $70 for a cordless one but my older dog Sofie does way better for the dremmel than when I cut them. When I cut them she cries even if you aren't even close to the quick and it freaks me out. Seth and LiLo don't really enjoy their nails being done anyway so they don't really like the dremmel that well either but I feel like I can take off quite a bit more without worrying I'm going to quick them.

plebayo wrote: They're about $70 for a cordless one but my older dog Sofie does way better for the dremmel than when I cut them.

I got mine for $20 at Walmart!

I love my dremel though, Shelby hates it as much as she hates the clippers but it's much easier for me. I never ever quick with the dremel (unless I'm trying to) but I can still get it as super short as possible. And while she hates that it gets a little warm I do think it hurts her less than clippers.

Oscar has long nails period. Lately he's been having a weird issue with his nails on back of his feet occaisionally rubbing on the side of the front toe, so I've been trying really hard to shorten them.

I clip them about once/week and I got a dog nail file at petsmart and then I smoothe the edges a bit, it looks nicer and I hope that it'll help keep his toes from getting rub sores.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

We have a pedi-paws. (seriously)... Tanner's mom got it for their pug but 'he was too scared of it' so we inherited it. It takes a while, but our dogs will tolerate it. They know they get a good treat when we finish, so they don't get too annoyed. I am too scared to use clippers. I have seen my mom quick our chihuahua a few times and it scarred me for life. I would really like to invest in a real dremel though. (Can you use a regular dremel tool or are there dog nail dremels?)

~Brittany, Degan and Harlow's mom

"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."

I find that if you do use clippers, it's important to use sharp ones. Blunt blades means you need to press harder, and more pressure on the quick inside, so more pain/discomfort.

For dogs with black nails, if you go VERY carefully, a good trick no to quick them is to cut the front of the nail, small slice by small slice, until you see a small circle with a white outline -that usually means that the quick is near, and it's close enough so that the quick receeds.

And make sure to wear a shirt with a high collar, finding nail bits in your bra really sucks.

My dremel was around $40 (cordless)at Walmart and came with a bunch of bits. I use the bigger sandpaper bit to grind them down then use the cone shaped grinding stone to round them off. I hated pedi-paws. It would not allow you to angle it to shape the nails and it was cheap sand paper (and not rechargable). It also only had one speed (slow). It just did not seem like it did anything for Ino's nails. He has nail break issues so rounding jagged edges before they cause a snag and break is important and pedi paws was not useful for that. Dremeling is common for use on large birds because eventhough you dont let the dremel bit get hot, it still goes fast enough that it will cauterize it if you hit the quick (most larger parrots had black thick nails - so you can't see it). Birds can bleed to death pretty quick, so for parrots-that was the preferred method we used at the pet store I worked at.